Bible Strands
Jeremiah 51:32
The fords have been seized, the marshes set on fire, and the soldiers are terrified.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Jeremiah pronounces this oracle against Babylon at the precise moment enemy troops breach the city while couriers race to deliver news of its capture to the king.
The words — The Hebrew מַעְבָּרוֹת (ma‘ḇārōt, “fords”) combined with נִתְפָּשׂוּ (niṯpāśū, “have been seized”) records the sudden loss of river crossings, while אֲגַמִּים (‘ăgammîm, “reed-marshes”) and שָׂרְפוּ (śārəp̄ū, “they have burned”) documents the deliberate ignition of defensive wetlands.
The thread — The destruction of waterways parallels Isaiah’s decree to dry up the sea’s depths (Isaiah 44:27) and fulfills Jeremiah’s prior report that Babylon’s warriors had exhausted their strength and stopped resisting (Jeremiah 51:30).
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to acknowledge that political and military defenses are dismantled by concrete, observable events, leaving no room for self-reliance when sovereign judgment executes.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 44:27 who says to the depths of the sea, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your currents,’
- Jeremiah 50:37 A sword is against her horses and chariots and against all the foreigners in her midst, and they will become like women. A sword is against her treasuries, and they will be plundered.
- Jeremiah 51:30 The warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting; they sit in their strongholds. Their strength is exhausted; they have become like women. Babylon’s homes have been set ablaze, the bars of her gates are broken.